HOLLAND – Corniela “Corry” van der Bijl, the wife of the renowned “Bible Smuggler,” Andrew van der Bijl, passed away on January 23m 2018, at the age of 86. She had been the faithful companion of the man the world knew as Brother Andrew for 59 years.
The ministry of what is now Open Doors began quietly in 1956 when Brother Andrew began smuggling Bibles into the former Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War. The ministry operated largely unknown until the publication of God’s Smuggler in 1967. The story became a best seller among Christian books.
Learn more about our co-laborer, Brother Andrew, on the “Missionaries” biography pages at Missions Boc.
As revealed in the book, Brother Andrew would pray each time he crossed the border with Bibles hidden in his car, “Lord, you made blind eyes see. Now, I pray, make seeing eyes blind.”
Open Doors is now an international organization with Bible-distribution and other ministries in more than 60 countries where the Gospel is not readily available and in some where Christians are still being persecuted.
According to the Open Doors, “We stake our lives in Jesus’ Great Commission. We take this command so seriously that we still take risks to this day to get copies of the Gospel into hostile areas. We do this because we love God. We are inspired by the life and teachings of Jesus who often went out of his way to spend time being present with vulnerable people on the margins of society.”
Sources:
- Assist News Service, Brother Andrew’s Wife, Corry, Passes onto Her Eternal Reward
- SIGHT Magazine, Cornelia van der Bijl, wife of Open Doors founder Brother Andrew dies at age 86
- CBN News, Wife of Famous ‘Bible Smuggler’ Brother Andrews Dies
